Within Earshot

After landing the TARDIS she... 'Borrowed' from Thet, she glanced over at Robin with a grin. "Alright, if I figured out exactly how to fly this thing. We should have landed on Carval, the planet of spires. The species that lives here has learned how to make soft glass! They've created entire cities just out of this clay-like substance and it hardened under the three suns that are shining at all times. If dark were to fall for more than two hours, the city would melt from lack of direct heat." She proclaimed proudly, gesturing to the doors before grabbing her black leather jacket and pulling it on while walking towards them. "Come on, there are colors shining off of this city that you will never see on Earth or anywhere in your solar system." She added, looking over at Robin cheerfully, her hand on the door handle before she shoved it open and stepped out into complete darkness. "Oh... Well... I might be a bit off the mark. Say..." She spun back around and ran to the scanner to peer at it with a frown. "Two galaxies to the east of the sun that we needed to go. Oh well, come on then, new planet, let's go explore!"
Stepping back out the doors, she pulled the zipper up on her jacket and pulled out a small penlight to shine around. The small beam of brightness shone on several immense tree trunks to the sides. The forest growing around them had somehow formed a natural tunnel under their vast canopy. Turning back to face Robin, she waved her hand. "Come on, I don't sense anything around, it's safe."

Robin giggled a bit as she strode out of the TARDIS, stopping to close the doors behind her. "I let you take me into the universe and this is where we end up. Nice." She couldn't help but smile anyway. Sure, this place probably wasn't the friendliest feeling, but it was still cooler than anything on Earth. She brushed a bit of her hair back behind her ear as she looked up at the dimly lit canopy in awe. "My mum always told me to never go off with a stranger. Is this why?" She laughed a little as she spoke, spinning around to get a good look at the area. It felt like some kind of jungle city, tons and tons of trees all standing like skyscrapers - and to Robin, they certainly felt that big. "Any idea where we are, then?"

"Ummm, some hardly explored area called..." Sonya fell silent in thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. "Cat's eye nebula. It's the spire's planet's galaxy neighbor." Turning back around, she felt a prickle on the back of her neck. Reaching up, she rubbed the spot lightly before glancing over at Robin with a slight frown. "Just... Stay within earshot, yeah? I don't know what exactly what is in here, but we can never be too cautious." Flashing a wide smile at her, she started walking through the tunnel with a cheery whistle. "Come on then, we won't know what will happen if we don't go and see what trouble we can get into, Robin. Get those feet moving."

"Well yeah, life's no fun without a bit of trouble." Robin grinned and followed along behind Sonya, sparing a glance at a tree now and then. Moving over to the side a bit, she kept after her, running her hand along the tree bark. She kept her eyes open in the dim lighting, looking from side to side to check for anything that might jump out at them. There was no way anything was going to surprise her. Then she stumbled, tripping over a rather large root. "Woah!" She yelped, reaching over to steady herself on a tree. Down. Look down too. She frowned a bit and continued on, much more careful of where she stepped. Her face turned a light pink - good thing it was dark.

Sonya glanced at Robin with a slight grin on her face, barely illuminated by the penlight in her hand. "Easy goes it, last thing I want is to carry you back to the TARDIS and into the med bay. I'm not the best at binding ankles. Last time I tried, the bone healed wrong." Lifting one of her shoulders in a half shrug, she turned back forward and noticed a fork in the path. Bouncing the light on each path in turn, she looked at Robin out of the corner of her eyes with a sly grin. "What do you think? Split up, or we choose a path. Either way, it will be a tad harder to get back." Sonya was positively bouncing on her feet in excitement at the fact of exploring. She hasn't gone off on her own with a companion in so long it was like rediscovering she could ride a bike after so many years.

"We'd get more accomplished if we split up, but didn't you just say to stay within earshot?" Robin smirked, walking up to take a look down each path. They looked about the same - tons of trees, dirt, and rocks. In the dark. Everything a good spooky forest needs. Although, since it was dark, she could only see a little way down, so there was really no telling what was in there. Turning back to Sonya, she shrugged, "You're the expert here, which path would you go down? I'm kind of leaning towards the left one, it seems a little brighter." She giggled at her new friend's excited attitude, finding it funny that she could be so happy in such a deserted place.

Sonya pointed the light at either path then clicked it off suddenly, leaving them in complete darkness. "Let's have fate decide for us, yeah?" She chuckled, grabbing Robin and spinning her around a couple of times before spinning herself around as well. "Whatever path we find, we go down ourselves." She added into the dark stumbling towards the area she thought the pathways were only to walk smack into a tree with a groan. "Ow..." Rubbing at her forehead, she got back to her feet and held her hands out in front of her as she wandered slowly towards the right path. "Oi, Robin, get moving. Found one!"

"Woah!" Robin held her arms out and blinked her eyes once. Twice. Three times. She swayed as she walked, not remembering which path Sonya stumbled down. Mostly because she wasn't facing the right way. With a sigh, she moved her feet down the left path, hurrying a bit to try and find Sonya. She kept near the trees, leaning against them for support. After a minute, she realized she went down the wrong path. Robin frowned, turning around to see she wouldn't make it back now. "There isn't really another way to go, so..." Another sigh, grumbling something about 'great ideas', and she was strolling down the path in front of her, one arm behind her back, grabbing onto the other.

“Sonya is a jerk”

Theta found himself thinking that frequently for the past three hours. The three hours since he left the TARDIS to go get chips. The three hours that Sonya had been gone. The three hours his TARDIS had been gone.

Three hours since Sonya went and stole his TARDIS.

The 60 year old paced, irritated, in front of the Torchwood tower, looking up at where he knew the camera was every so often. Three hours...he couldn't stand it. Theta was about ready to scream, seeing as Timelords did not cope well with the idea of boredom very well. His shadow was elongated in the light of the full moon, and his tennis shoes made a slapping sound when he walked, then a squeaking sound when he turned the way he came to continue pacing. Slap slap slap slap squeee slap slap slap slap squeeee...

“Ok, will you just stop your pacing? It's driving me mad” A man walked up to Theta, a big grey military coat billowing out behind him “You've been here for hours, just walking back and forth, looking at the camera. How do you even know about Torchwood?” Theta shrugged, not stopping in the rhythmic slapping and squeaking.

“I'm not just a normal human, let's just leave it at that” he turned on his heel to face Jack, raising an eyebrow, restlessness from waiting three hours showing plainly on his face “I need a vortex manipulator”

“Look, we don't just give those out randomly, the general public isn't even supposed to know about those...”

“Vortex. Manipulator. Timelord. Gimme”

After a very odd conversation, involving one surprised ex-Time Agent and one very irritated Timelord, Theta finally got the device. Well...he might have borrowed it...

“Hey! Come back here! I don't care if you're a Timelord or not, that's my vortex manipulator!”

The two ran around the streets of London, Theta trying to multitask by not only avoiding Jack but also putting the stupid leather thing on. He looked over his shoulder with an apologetic grin.

“'I'll give it back once I have my TARDIS!”

Well, Theta had never used a vortex manipulator before. So he had been fiddling with random buttons, just trying to make him go somewhere already. If all else fails, just guess. And his efforts soon payed off. There was a large flash, then a horrible sensation all over his body, like a bunch of mosquitoes all over. He tried to open his eyes, but when he tried, he had to shut them immediately because it was just too bright. Maybe he should have figured out how to work a vortex manipulator before using it...

zap

Above the forest path where Robin was, there was a very loud and audible zap, accompanied by a shout of terror from above the trees

Crash smack crack rustle crack smack thump

Theta landed on the path in front of Robin, groaning and holding his, well, his private spot. He rolled over onto his back, tears in his eyes, twigs and branches in his hair, and scrapes all around. Not fun, traveling with a vortex manipulator for the first time then falling through a forest. No doubts about that.

“That's going to smart in the morning...”

Robin yelped in a high pitch that she never thought would come out of her mouth as she jumped back in surprise. She took a moment to take that in before walking forward slowly. "Uh... sir?" Moving forward to offer him a hand up, she looked down at his wrist. Her hand pulled away to go take the leather contraption off his wrist and save him any more trouble. "Are you alright?" She reached forward for his hand to help him up. Who is this guy? What the heck just happened?

Theta groaned, blinking his eyes blurrily up at Robin.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I think..." He took her offered hand up and groaned again, leaning against one of the many trees in the area "That's the last time I travel without a capsule"
Once the initial pain had subsided, Theta took the time to actually look around. They were in a forest of some sort, with trees that loomed over them like wooden giants, casting down shadows everywhere. The light from the sun, or maybe even suns, shone down through the canopy of leaves, making everything on the ground a greenish tint. He sighed, starting to pick some twigs and leaves out of his hair.

"So what planet is this? Not sure if I've been here before, though I could be wrong, seeing as lots of planets have large forests like this one... Oh! And how rude of me!" Theta straightened up, offering a hand "Theta Sigma, and you are?"

"Robin.." She reached out to shake his hand, still a bit confused on what just happened. "I think Sonya said something around Cat's Eye Nebula. Not really sure. I lost her back there somewhere." She gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. That reminded her - how to get back to Sonya. "Well now at least I'm lost with someone else." Shrugging, she turned around and looked down the way she just came. Robin tucked her hair back behind her ear and looked back at Theta. "Got any ideas or are we just wandering now?" She smiled a bit for the first time since he popped in, getting over the confusion.

"I dunno, wandering has always worked for me...wait. Did you say Sonya? You know Sonya?" he looked around, attempting to see through the thick foliage that surrounded them "where is she?"

He took a step forward...just to trip over a root, faceplanting on the ground again. He swore a bit in Gallifreyan, sitting up and glaring at the root as if he were trying to set it on fire with gaze alone.

"Ok, I normally like forests...but after three hours of nothing I don't think I'm the most... coordinated" he gave a short amused laugh, then tugged at the root. 'Nope' it said 'not budging, cause I just need to make your day worse'. Theta sighed in frustration, giving up and flopping onto his back, blowing a stray brown lock out of his face. And he couldn't just use his sonic, either; it didn't work on wood.

"Maybe I'll just lay here for a bit. What could go wrong just laying here? No tripping over things, no falling off cliffs...anyways, don't they say somewhere that if you're lost in the woods and someone's looking for you, to stay put?"

"Well apparently you know Sonya - does it sound like she would come back here any time soon?" Robin laughed as she sat down next to Theta. "The only other option is a manipulator though," -she held up her wrist- "And I'm sure you don't like that. Not many do." Sighing, she looked up into the thick canopy of branches and leaves. I wish I could get a better look around, but there's no way I'm gonna try and fly through that... She picked up a small rock off the ground and threw it forward. Sitting is boring. "Are you sure you just want to sit here?" Robin turned to ask Theta, a brow raised.

Sonya let out a low groan once she reached the branch in the path again, scowling at the ground with the penlight shining on Robin's footprints. "Last time I do anything fun again. I swear, I can't trust people, I just can't." Turning down the left path, she picked up her pace, trying to catch up with the girl with a small growl. "I'm putting tracking devices on whoever travels with me from now on. This is just a tad ridiculous." She added to herself, glancing up at the trees before turning a corner and spotting the small, familiar figure ahead and breaking into a run. "Robin! How did you get turned around like that? You had to of... Oh." Sonya froze in her tracks once she spotted Theta on the ground, a sheepish smile spreading across her face. "Right, um. Hello again... Long time no see, I mean..." She added, getting closer to him and shining the light on his face. "Really long time. Seriously." She didn't see him when she took his TARDIS for a joyride. Apparently he had been gone longer than she thought, then again, he did hop about in space a lot. "You... You've grown. And..." With a click, she shut the penlight off, to hide the sudden embarrassed flush that spread across her cheeks. "Anyway, good thing you stopped by, now we have a party!"

Theta blinked, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was seeing right. Was that Sonya? She just looked so...young. Well, technically speaking he was way younger than her, but she still looked about five or ten years too young, in human terms.

"Yeah, and it looks like it hasn't been very long so you, then..." he grinned, his look turning from shock to just a toothy smile in an instant "but nice to see you! Looking younger every day" he winked, knowing it had been a horribly cheesy joke but saying it anyways. He looked down at his ankle, where it was still tied up by the stubborn root which was more like rope than anything "you wouldn't happen to have a knife with you, would you? I don't think we can really start any parties till we can all stand up; I think that you'd be far enough into the timestream that you know I never carry sharp objects" he gave another fruitless tug on his ankle...in which it responded by squeezing tighter. He hissed, face contorting in a grimace.

"Ok, maybe I hurt my angle or something in the fall. Note to self, stop falling from high places"

Sonya shook her head and let out a small laugh before pulling out a pocketknife and beginning to cut away on the root holding her friend's foot captive. "How do you manage to get into so much trouble so quickly at your age. You ought to be old enough to keep from getting into too big of a jam." She teased once she got the root cut through enough to pull his ankle out and clicking the penlight on to take a look at it. "You've sprained it from falling I'd gather." She added, glancing up at him with a slight frown on her face. "Manipulators, not the best form of travel, I'd know. Used a faulty one for years. Anyway, shouldn't be too much to fix anyway, hold on." Reaching out, she wrapped her hand gently around his bruised ankle and closed her eyes, a sudden gold light surrounding her fingers and seeping into his skin, healing the bruise and leaving behind unmarked skin. "Ah, there we are. It's been quite a while since I did that." Sonya grinned, sitting back on her heels with a self-satisfied look on her face. "Try it out."

"Yeah, well I guess I just have a knack for getting into trouble, don't I?" he retorted, watching as Sonya healed his ankle. As soon as the golden light disappeared, he wiggled his foot experimentally. After making sure that it wouldn't suddenly break or anything, Theta hopped up onto his feet. He bounced a bit. Yep, good as new! He looked down at Sonya.

"Better than before it was sprained! Thanks" he turned to glare at the root one last time...it was gone. Huh. He shrugged, dismissing it. He turned around and gave Sonya a sort of mock glare, not really serious but enough to let her know that he was annoyed with her.

"So...how'd you get here, huh? Was it by TARDIS? Maybe by a certain Type 57...?"

"Well maybe if you didn't leave it unlocked all the time, people wouldn't take off in her for a joyride now and again." Sonya retorted cheerfully, getting to her feet with a slight groan before pulling Robin to start walking once more along the path. "Besides, I left a note saying we'd be back sooner or later, it wouldn't have been more than a day, you could have gone to the movies or out to eat." She added, casting a sideways glance at Thet out of the corner of her eye, studying his profile. "You look... Good." She finally managed to say, again grateful for the dark of the path as her face heated up once more. "I mean, for your age, how old are you anyway? Last time I saw you I think you were near what... Sixty..?"

Theta raised an eyebrow, grinning impishly.

"Spot on, sixty right now. You can't be that far off from my timeline, then" he scratched at his stubble for a second, thinking "Now let me see here...you could drive the TARDIS, so after the point when you became whole. So at most, eh...twenty years off? Maybe shorter, I don't know. We need to figure out a way to keep track of these sorts of things so we don't give away information to the other that might have not happened yet. Like how the Doctor keeps those little journals with River? Yeah, journals, that could work..." Theta looked up into the canopy while he was talking, stuffing his hands into his pockets, face in the classic 'thinking' expression. It was obvious that, whether it be a 40 year old Theta or a 60 year old Theta, he didn't really change too much, aside from appearance and experiences.

Sonya felt a slight grin form on her face as she jerked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing in the general direction of the TARDIS behind them. "That journal I always had with me before? It's my original one that I had kept, it started out as a log book of all the places and times I had been while using my manipulator, to keep me from crossing my own path, yeah? But then it turned into a log of the people I ran into and when, so I don't tend to just stop using it now. Once we're done here, I'll be adding it to my book along with the co-ordinates in case I decide to come back later." She explained in a soft tone, unwilling to look over at him again should she cause another blush to rise to her face. It was ridiculous really, she had known him for years and all of a sudden she felt shy around him. Never in all of her years had she ever felt shy around anyone, it bothered her more than anything. "Right, another fork..." Sonya murmured, distracting herself from her thoughts as she shined the light down both paths again before clicking it off and squinting down the right one. "Do you see a light?"

Theta squinted along with Sonya, looking down the right path. He shrugged.

"I'm not sure. It's hard to tell" he took a few steps forward, then turned and looked over his shoulder at Sonya and Robin. He, being Thet, had yet to notice the Timelady's change in behavior. Even if she had gotten a shirt that flashed 'I'm nervous' in big bold letters across the front, it was possible he wouldn't notice.

"Well, aren't you two coming? We'll never know what's down there if we don't go and see it!"

Whipping out his Sonic Screwdriver, Theta started forward on the path, setting the device to silent and turning it on. It acted like the girls' penlights, just blue instead of the normal white color. Leaves crunched underfoot as he walked, and he couldn't help but try to see everything, every detail, even if it was all just trees and small plant life.

Sonya nodded, casting a glance over at Robin with a small shrug before pulling her along behind Theta. "There's a light, I know I saw it." She said once they caught up to him, falling into step beside Thet with a small frown, her eyes narrowing as she tried to see the faint light she had spotted earlier. "There! See it?" She exclaimed, putting a hand on the arm holding his screwdriver out and pointing at the faint, bobbing light ahead of them just before it vanished once more into the dark. "Ah, life! Come on, where there's life, there is a town, where there is a town, there's food." She said in excitement, completely forgetting about her earlier discomfort around Theta and grabbing his hand along with Robin's pulling them along at a faster pace.

Theta turned off the sonic and stuffed it out of sight, allowing himself to be dragged along, just like old times. Ah, it had always been that way it seemed. Even from the very beginning, when he crashed into this Universe at the young age of 30, the Timelady had dragged him along to the cafe where he met Mal. Her energy at times rivaled his own, which was a considerable feat, seeing as he practically acted as if he were on a permanent caffeine high. It was even more so after Sonya became whole again; the other side to her was just so...alive. Carefree.

"So what do you suppose it is?" he asked the other two, watching the little light like a cat as it bobbed up and down, flashed on and off. He loved things he didn't know. As time went on, there were less and less things left to discover, but that didn't mean that there was a shortage.

"I'm not sure, but it's intelligent, look. It's moving along the path, that's why it keeps vanishing. The turns in the trees." Sonya said in excitement, pointing with a hand before resuming her chase of the playful light. "For all we know it could be dangerous, but you know what? We won't know until we face it." She added, flashing Thet a bright grin just as they stepped out from under the canopy into a large glade in the middle of the forest. "Oh..." She gasped, spotting the light just in the middle of the grassy area, surrounded by several more lights of different colors, blues, reds, purples, greens. Letting go of Thet and Robin, Sonya slowly made her way towards the lights, their forms finally coming clear to her. Their bodies looked like small, bulbous plants, their arms and legs looking like the roots growing off of it. On the top's of their heads a bud of light pulsed rapidly, mimicking a heartbeat. The little group of lights danced around each other, playing and tumbling in the soft grass as Sonya crouched on the edge of the circle of light, watching with amusement and excitement as they rolled around. "Oh would you look at that? A completely different form of life, born from the forest, literally from the ground themselves... And see?" She added, looking up at the sky. Stars scattered across the sky as she pointed up, "Look at the positioning of the nebula above. This part of the system doesn't have a star to support life. This forest must live off of the light these little guys give off."